​Actors/coauthors performing a read-through of "The Time We Give Each Other," a play written by 14 middle-school and high-school students. It’s part of the Butterfly Project, a collaboration between Bryn Mawr’s Wolf Performing Arts Center and Philadelphia Young Playwrights.

​Ten teens walk into a room. They're captives to a high school lockdown, but no one knows the reason.

"Drugs," one suggests.

"No, the dogs would have already sniffed out something suspicious if it was only a locker search," says another - "must be a bomb threat. Or maybe a suicide?"

As speculations spread through word of mouth and hashtags, topics trend that leave some students pondering gossip's real-world implications, whether perpetuated in-person or over social media.​Such is the plot of The Time We Give Each Other, a new play penned by 14 middle-school and high-school students that premiered at two public readings on Friday. It's part of the Butterfly Project, a collaboration between Bryn Mawr's Wolf Performing Arts Center and Philadelphia Young Playwrights. The initiative launched in 2011, when children actors from Wolf PAC performed Celeste Raspanti's I Never Saw Another Butterfly at more than 70 schools and community centers over four years.